The aim of this HVEM study is to determine whether the malarial parasite, which resides within the red blood cell, is connected to the outside world by a duct connecting the erythocyte and parasitophorous vacoular membranes. Efforts at serial sectioning and routine thin-section TEM have been unsuccessful, but HVEM may be more useful in that more material can be examined and in thicker sections. We are also seeking evidence of "contact sites" that connect the vacoular membrane with the parasitic plasma membrane. These sites may mediate the export of parasite proteins to the host cell cytosol and plasma membrane.